


Roses have thorns, beauty has pain

by brxkenarrxws



Category: Original Work
Genre: Hanahaki Disease, Heavy Angst, Mild Blood, One-Sided Attraction, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:47:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24951043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brxkenarrxws/pseuds/brxkenarrxws
Summary: Red - the color of love, kindness, and familiarity. Also the color of despair and melancholyRose - Romantic flower of love, also associated with love and beauty.Hanahaki -  a fictional disease in which the victim coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one sided love. It ends when the beloved returns their feelings, or when the victim dies. It can be cured through surgical removal, but when the infection is removed, the victim's romantic feelings for their love also disappear.(Yes, this is somewhat based on my life.)
Relationships: (one-sided), Original Nonbinary Character/Original Character
Kudos: 1





	Roses have thorns, beauty has pain

Wren thought they could handle it. They thought they were fine. They could keep their emotions in check and shove them into a large empty whiskey bottle if they needed to. Yep, no problems, no errors, everything's _fine._ However...as much as the white-haired werewolf told themselves this, it didn't change the cold pain in their chest when Alpha said that she had a crush on someone.

"O-oh...uhm...okay." Wren had choked out in response. White-furred ears had pressed down against their short, scruffy snowy-white hair, lower than usual. A faint burning in their chest suddenly flared, and Wren held back a loud cough that clawed at their throat. It wasn't until Wren got into the bathroom that they went into a coughing fit and doubled-over on their knees, eyes screwed shut and a hand over their mouth.

Looking down, Wren's blue eyes shifted to a yellow-green shade in utter confusion as they stared down at the red rose petals in their hand.

_Red_

Alpha's favorite color.

Wren wheezed for a moment before coughing up more petals. It felt as though someone had lit a match and set their lungs on _fire_. It was a burning sensation that never left. Even after going back to class, when Wren's gaze fell onto Alpha, the sensation flared.

Alpha was undeniably perfect. She had a smile that could light up a room. A laugh that was music to Wren's ears and could make everyone else in the room laugh too.

She had beautiful amber-yellow eyes that were the color of the sun. Her hair was cut short with an undercut, and was the color of dark rich spruce wood with faint blonde ends. The pair of wolf ears that sat atop her head were the same shade of brown as her hair, and faded into blonde at the tips. The fluffy wolf tail looked more like the tail of a German shepherd, slightly curled and dark brown with a blackish fade near the tip. She was like an opposite of Wren, who had a fluffy, snowy white wolf tail and a pair of pristine white wolf ears. Her skin was a light brown, and she was so beautiful. Every time Alpha smiled, Wren felt warmth inside their chest that was replaced by a burning sensation in their lungs.

* * *

Wren tasted metal on their tongue as they went into another coughing fit. It was during lunch, and Wren was hiding out in the bathroom, coughing up blood and rose petals into the toilet. The burning pain never left.

Every time Wren heard Alpha's voice, the flaring pain worsened.

"Wren?"

Exhibit A.

"Wren, are you okay?" Alpha asked with a worried tone.

"I-I'm f-f-fine...!" Wren croaked, sitting back in the stall, leaning their head against the stall wall.

"A-are you sure? You sounded like you were throwing up." Alpha pointed out. She was closer now, probably standing in front of the stall door.

"I said I'm f-f-f...-" Wren's sentence trailed off as they scrambled over to the toilet and hacked up more rose petals and blood, a fiery pain clawing at their lungs.

"WREN?!" Alpha shouted.

Wiping the blood from their lips, Wren flushed the toilet and grabbed their black jacket and stepped out of the stall.

"I'm fine. Just some...food poisoning." Wren lied. Alpha frowned skeptically but didn't press further.

When those amber-yellow eyes stared into Wren's blue ones, it took everything within them to keep themselves from coughing.

Weeks passed, and it suddenly became a routine. Every hour, Wren would rush to the closest bathroom to cough up flower petals and blood. The metallic taste never left their tongue. It was there, no matter how many times Wren swished mouth wash. It never left.

Weeks became months, and suddenly, Alpha and Wren had a falling out.

From there, the sickness only worsened.

* * *

Every day was a blood-soaked hell. Wren would cough up so much flower petals and blood that it seemed like it would never end. They were lucky that they could still eat and drink without coughing petals and blood.

 _"How are you feeling?"_ asked Jay, one of Wren's online Discord friends. He was one of the few online friends that knew about Wren's Hanahaki Disease.

"I'm doing okay." Wren replied, yawning. It was quite late at night, and the both of them were on a voice call together. Thankfully it was a Friday night, so Wren wouldn't be pestered by the server mom to go the hell to sleep.

 _"Did you drink some water?"_ Jay asked. Wren let out a soft groan. Jay was like that brother that had a maternal instinct.

"Yes, Jay, I chugged like two bottles of water earlier." Wren replied.

 _"Good. Because if you aren't I'm telling Blake and Jinx."_ Jay said. Wren could practically _hear_ the shit-eating grin on Jay's face.

* * *

It hurt so much.

The pain was agonizing and Wren was crying.

Choked sobs only worsened the agony.

Blood-soaked rose petals drifted onto the floor of the school bathroom, smearing the tile with red.

Alpha's favorite color.

The coughs that racked from Wren's throat were wet and throaty, as if they had a severe case of strep. It felt as though thorns were digging into the walls of their throat. A cluster of red petals suddenly came into view, and an entire rose slid out of their mouth, connected to a bloody-green stem of thorns.

Vision slowly going black, Wren collapsed onto their side, blood trickling from the corner of their mouth. Dried blood caked their lips and their chin.

It had been four months since Alpha and Wren's falling out, and it seemed that this was the peak.

Closing their eyes, Wren let numbness overcome their body, the last thing they heard was the horrified scream of Alpha, who had just walked into the bathroom.

_You made flowers grow in my lungs, and although they are beautiful, I can't b r e a t h e_

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to this while writing this fic: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4wKy21eBcZwMp6fb2eRwSO?si=UmsjWjCCSNGM6d9WlL2HeQ


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